This month we had a visitor from the University of Siena, Simone Cresti. His visit was sponsored by the Erasmus Staff exchange for Universities. Simone’s background is in political science and he is currently a PhD candidate in European and Comparative Politics at the Department of Social Political and Cognitive Sciences. At the same moment he is working as project manager for the SDSN Mediterranean, a network for solutions in the field of sustainable development.

His trip to UCD aimed to develop knowledge, personal skills, relationships between universities and the opportunity to share good practices and experiences. With a background in political science, Simone was particularly interested in what UCD does in these fields trying to join political sciences and sustainable development. He is interested in understanding how UCD manages research, what strategies stand at the basis of the fund raising for research and the activities of SPIRe.

Simon worked with Prof Paul Walsh on his visit, and through the sharing of ideas agreed that the role of research in political sciences and international relations is strategic for the adoption of solutions for the sustainable development, especially for Agenda 2030. He also met a number of other people from the university, mainly research administrators and researchers. Simone is interested to come back to UCD to pursue postdoctoral projects in the future.